The
easy part was to gather all the pieces for my armature as they were all
in my kitchen. I started with making a wad of aluminum foil for the
palm area of the hand.

Next I pushed the trimmed skewers into the foil. I found that I had to trim the skewers a little more than I had originally.

Paper
clay was applied to my armature. I did this in several steps. I would
do one side, let it dry and do the other side. It made it easier to
control plus it worked great as the new clay adheres to the dry clay
well.

Finally I added a wash of raw umber paint. When dry I coated it with encaustic was.